Mission Team Visit in Morogoro

My last week in Morogoro, we were blessed to have a mission team visit our site from Oklahoma. Many members of the group had visited the site before and had built wonderful relationships with the members of our church. Also, it was a very exciting visit because it marked the beginning of the construction for the roof of our church. As I have mentioned before, our church has been under construction for a LONG time. Mostly, this is because the church in Morogoro is very dependent on foreign money. They wait until they have received the funds and then they start the next project.

It was really fun, though, watching everyone from the church as they got ready for the visitors. There were extra rehearsals and more choir groups were created to present even more music at the Sunday service. A group of youth also rehearsed a dancing routine for while we were singing our praising songs. It was quite a festival on Sunday and there were a lot more people in church! There was a time that the mission team was called up to introduce themselves to the congregation (a very important part of Tanzanian culture). One of the members of the team gave us our message at church about how we are to trust God to save us in our situations. In the end, we all had communion together. This was a very powerful time for me because it was my last Sunday and God reminded me that it doesn't matter where we come from, we are all so very precious in His eyes. It doesn't matter what we've done before, what continent or city we were born in, how our lives growing up are, He loves us all unconditionally and in His presence, we are the same. (Please note that the Sunday I'm talking about in this blog was the same Sunday as my last Sunday in Morogoro. I know that I kind of split it up a bit.)

Mission team introductions

Dancing while praising

Church Communion

Throughout their stay, the team did what they could on the work site, but I think it was difficult because so much of the work was meant for skilled laborers. They got to do things like mix concrete and transfer the mixture in buckets up the ladder to where it was needed on top. They also got to spend some time playing with the kids from the school. I think they kids really enjoyed the simple activities and toys that the team brought with them. I even got to help them teach some of the kids how to make gimp which is a crafting project that was really popular when I was growing up. 

The scaffolding which was used to put up the church roof

A line of people (mission team and church members) passing buckets of concrete up the ladder

Overall, the visit of the mission team was a very nice experience, but a little bit stressful for me because they were keeping their items at my house. Luckily, everything worked out and I was able to do everything that I needed to do (including packing) without much difficulty!! :)

I hope that you are having a blessed week!! I'm currently visiting a volunteer missionary (like me!) in Czech Republic right now. It's been great to see her church and see the town where she has been living for the last 15 months. She's also finishing up her service and we will be heading back to the states together later this week. It's really crazy to think that it's actually happening and I'm really going to be home so soon!! :D

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You!

~Christine